Table Of Content-
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T H E O F F I C E OF
A S S E R T I O N
A n a r t o f r h e t o r i c
f o r t h e A c a d e m i c E s s a y
S C O T T F. C R I D E R
T he O ffice of A ssertion
T he O ffice of A ssertion
An Art of Rhetoric for the Academic Essay
S co tt F. C rider
LSI Books
Wilmington, Delaware
2005
Copyright © ion5 1ST Books
Sixth Printing. October 2015
All rights reserved. No pare of rhis publication may be reproduced
nr Transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechan
ical* including phococopy. or any information storage and re
trieval system now known or ru be invented, without permission
in writing from rhe publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to
quote brief passages in connection with a review written lor
inclusion m a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast
Crider. Score F
The oftice of assertion : an art nf rhetoric for the academic
essay Scott P Crider — 1st pel — W ilm ington, Del 1ST
Bonks. 1005
p. . cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN: 1932236457
1 Rhetoric, a. English languagc-Rhetonc. 3 Essay-
Authorship 4. Academic writing. T Tide
P30I.5.A27 C75 2005 2004:04558
808.4 dci2 0506
Published in rhe United States by:
LSI Books
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
3901 CentiTvillc Road
Wilmington. DR 19807-1938
\\%vw. 1S1books.org
Book design by Kara beer
Manufactured in the United States of America
Dedicated to David Beil.
Mure dt'rtontmco. and
John Briggs,
i(ood men skilled in speaking
We are speaking where we stand, and we shall stand
afterwards in the presence of wliac we have said.
Wendell Berry
Standing by Words
Table of Contents
Preface.....................................................................\X
Acknowledgments...............................................xm
Chapter-Paragraph Outline ..........-.................._.xv
1 Introduction: Rhetoric as the Liberal Art
of Sou]-Leading in Writing .......................1
2 Invention. The Discovery of Arguments..... 15
3 Organization: The Desire for Design...... 43
4 Style: Words and Sentences.....................-.73
5 Re-Vision: Products and Processes............107
6 Conclusion: Rhetoric as the
Office of Assertion.................................119
Appendix 1 Student Essay: The Maturation
of Telemachos...............................125
Appendix 2 Evaluation Standards for Essays .. 137
Appendix 3 Peer-Review Form................ 139
Works Cited.. 141
Preface
Having looked unsuccessfully far and wide for a. very
shorr rhetoric co use in my literature courses, I de
cided to w rite one, l found mosc rhetorics, even those
I still very much admire, overly long, developed, and
encyclopedic—that is, better consulted than read all
the way through. J wanted a shorter treatment: a
long essay, not a textbook. Too many others were
written with far too low a view of both students’
intellects and rhetoric’s nature. You have in your
hands, then, a brief but serious rhetoric, one which
can be read profitably in a weekend and which, for
die interested student, can be used as an introduc
tion to the classical art of rhetoric and composition.
The works cited form a select Iibran* for the more
advanced student to pursue. I think this book could
be used as the rhetoric in any humanities course,
including first-year composition, supplemented per
haps only with a handbook. Though I do think that
advanced high school students, homeschoolers.and
even professional writers will find the book profit
able. it has been wricren primarily to the first-year
college student.
IX
T he O fhct of A ssertion
Font of the book’s characteristics require com
ment. First, ir is informed both by the classical rhe
torical tradition and more recent discoveries con
cerning the writing process. Second, because I teach
literature in a school with a core curriculum founded
on great books, the approach is admittedly old-fash
ioned and assumes chat the reader is interested in
writing about those texts which have proven to be
essential for anyone who wishes co understand,
rather than simply dwell within, the contemporary
world. One of the reasons I have used a student es
say on Homer j$ my belief that students write better
when they write about difficult and important texts,
especially chose, central to so many other texts. I hope
the Homeric material will not be distracting for a
general reader who may nor yet have read Homer.
Indeed, my desire is that such a reader will be in
spired to read Homer's foundational poems. The end
here is in no way reactionary. What both celebrants
and critics of multicultural education have failed to
understand js this; culture has always already been
multicultural. There is no avoiding either the past
or i he present, because the important texts of our
own present culture are themselves intertextual re
sponses to past ones. One of the contemporary
world’s most important poems, Derek Walcott’s
OmvroSy for example, is a poem which at once relies
upon and redefines its Homeric mrertexts. I shall
ignore the culture war over curriculum because I
believe it to be one long eitheror fallacy. Third, the
book discusses only one kind of writing: the aca-
\
P refute
domic essay. This is certainly not the only form of
the genre, and 1 applaud the attempt to enlarge the
kinds of writing we ask students to produce. 1 have
assigned dramatic scenes, poems, and journals my
self Even so, most classes require an academic es-
sav. My vision of what rhetoric is would certainly
encompass many other forms of writing, perhaps
even all, bur the focus here is quite limited and highly
practical. Last, the book assumes and argues that
the writing that students do for teachers matters, that
in itself such writing is perhaps one of the most
important intellectual* emotional, and spiritual ex
periences in the life that students and teachers share.
Whatever the soul mav be exactly, it must be ac-
knowledged by anyone, teacher or student, who
hopes to be a good rhetor.
M
